Several fellow Wordslingers and I are engaged in a writing contest for this month. The point isn’t really about winning wordcount but about getting us writing every day with an incentive plan. The more days consecutively we write, the more points we earn. I’ll be blunt, it’s been hard. I’ve had a few days when I could really churn out the words (about half of them worth keeping). But work has also been a butt, making it hard to get anything done. Not to mentions critiques I owe for tomorrow’s Wordslinger meeting. But I’m not posting to complain, just the opposite. This is helping remind me how much I enjoy writing. Just writing can be an act of mental release.* The challenge to write GOOD fiction is still there, though. What I enjoy writing isn’t really the most salable. But this challenge is helping to keep me focused on writing stories that matter. That have more than just sex and violence for its own sake in it. Heck, one of my challenges for myself is to write more stories with absolutely no sex or violence but still chock-full of conflict. Now that’s a challenge. For me, at least. I also have to put together my Clarion West application package. I’m not sure which stories I’ll submit, which are my best. I’ve had some stories get close to publication but they didn’t quite make the cut. Maybe I’ll send in those. Gah. More stress. Or maybe not. All I can do is send out my stuff, write up an amusing bio and…roll the dice. I really feel that Clarion West is a big risk, if I get in, an even bigger risk. But I want to try one more time. I don’t know if I need the validation and I don’t know if I need the training as much as I did a couple years ago,** but I do want to learn everything I can. I know I can make it, maybe even make it professionally but I don’t know if I need to now. The book market seems to be cratering, at least as far as the NY houses. On the other hand, I still fully intend to write a novel that will make the cut at PYR. I’ve got three years left on that goal. Well, big mountains are scaled one step at a time. First February, tomorrow the world.